Ambitions for 2014

2014 will - for zebra-factory at least - be a much quieter and hopefully less bipolar year than the mildly insane 2013. That said, writing down what's coming up it does still sound a bit hectic!

We plan to put out at least three books including the long-delayed New Zealand work, a book of the Polish work (shown at Kurb during FotoFreo 2012) as well as a much expanded edition of 'Six'. The latter will include more images made across the project including others outside the scope of the residency. If I find the energy I might also publish a final book of the 'Five' series.

The hard cover version of Elisa's 'The Strange Quiet of Things Misplaced' has already been released (http://au.blurb.com/b/4838672-the-strange-quiet-of-things-misplaced).

All of these books will now be published through Blurb as we can't afford to finance entire print runs locally. Unfortunately this means that they will come at a premium but we do hope to put out both hard cover and soft cover versions to at least give people some options.

The Sofitel exhibitions will run until early March (https://www.facebook.com/events/567977646605914/ and https://www.facebook.com/events/670959532937582/) and a portion of the work will likely stay in Melbourne for another exhibition from May 2014.

Elisa will be doing an artist residency with Central TAFE in the fourth quarter of 2014 and will also be showing a selection of works from 'The Original Place' as part of that.

The Bankwest Award (https://www.bankwest.com.au/artprize) continues through to March and it's likely that 'Six' will be significantly extended at the Subiaco Museum (https://www.facebook.com/events/167618520088719/).

There are a few other things on as well so keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates (https://www.facebook.com/pages/zebra-factorycom/125311714165969?ref=hl)

Artperth is still chugging along and I am considering producing a small, extremely lo-fi magazine at some stage. I do need to test the waters a bit to see how I will get on with content. Ideally we would like to publish text about the various exhibitions on at any given moment as well as feature one project. Everything would be black & white, saddle-stitched and probably printed at Officeworks!

I have taken up a position on PCP's board (http://www.pcp.org.au/) and I hope to help them in whatever way I can to push this great organisation even further.

Finally, this year I am personally determined to do some 'mucking about' with other media. There have already been a few mildly successful experiments over the last few weeks so you never know! I'm not dissatisfied with my light catchers, just looking for other ways to express myself…. I promise to spare you my poems though!

Elisa Markes-Young's 'The Strange Quiet of Things Misplaced'
http://au.blurb.com/b/4838672-the-strange-quiet-of-things-misplaced

Elisa Markes-Young's 'The Strange Quiet of Things Misplaced'
http://au.blurb.com/b/4838672-the-strange-quiet-of-things-misplaced

The Original Place @ Sofitel Melbourne on Collins

Six @ Sofitel Melbourne on Collins

Fremantle Prison @ Sofitel Melbourne on Collins

Front room @ Subiaco Museum

Front room @ Subiaco Museum

Display cabinet in Six @ Subiaco Museum.

Open Source Art...

Feeling a bit nostaglic (again!) today.

I like the rather utopian - but still very possible - idea of democratised creation. The model used for open source software can very easily be applied to other creative forms ie. writing, music, etc.

With artistic forms it can be very interesting as the ideas of intent, tangible outcomes, aesthetics and context can become skewed.

Together with Jens and Micheal, we explored this in 2001 with Kommando Konrad Zuse. The idea being that the viewer was empowered to participate in the creative process by simply being able to manipulate various elements in the space... essentially a large, constantly moving canvas.

This was done by not 'fixing' the location of imagery & words other than facilitating a basic mood by 'placing' sounds through headphones. 144 nails were put into the room and a library of elements were supplied.

The viewer then was free to add, move or even remove components to generate narratives.

What was exciting (and occassionally disturbing) was some of the associations people made. Some went very post-modern and hung multiple elements on one nail or even moved the hanging device to skew the elements themselves.

People reacted to the narratives created by others and either embellished or destroyed them. There was an almost complete lack of preciousness that I still find refreshing.



The '(de)valued' object is something I'd explored in 1996. This was an exhibition of large scale b/w photocopies attached to the wall with gaffer tape. The work was then simply destroyed after the showing...

Update: 'Still Open' is coming to the Bakery in Perth. Read more here.

New Zealand Music

Feeling nostalgic this afternoon...

The Tall Dwarfs were pivotal for me even if I came to them quite late. Great sounds.

Explains a lot to the uninitiated....

Two New Zealand films explain a lot about 'where I come from'.... man I miss the short film culture that existed before NZ could afford to make features frequently. Think Leeming Aid, La Vie En Rose, Kitchen Sink, etc.

Favourite Photographs

Was browsing through some old magazines and there was a Q & A with a photographer.

One of the questions was a seemingly simple 'What's your favourite photograph?'.

This is really hard to pin down when you think about it. Ironically enough, she picked a photograph that I adore from Sally Mann. That said, I'd hardly call it my 'favourite'.

Going back a bit, there are influential photographs which I'm very much aware of when I'm working. The capsicum pictures from Edward Weston, the new Trees book from Ansel Adams, Mapplethorpe, Mann, Selgado, Peress, Diane Arbus, Mary Ellen Mark, Serrano .... the list is never ending.

Christine Webster (NZ Photo) and Carole Shephard (NZ Photo) had a big influence on me, the dance work of Douglas Wright, even music that I 'discovered' in the early 90s feeling switched gears. Outside the realm of photography, many other images or films have also made their mark.

It's something that really makes you think ... what influences you the 'most'? Can you pin down one thing? Is there one song that changed your life? One artwork that REALLY changed the way you look at the world?